Maximilien Forestell

May 6th 2024

Cameron Smith

G Block

How Wealth Changes Characters in the Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald is a book about a man obsessed with a married

woman. But under the surface the book is, in reality, somewhat a representation of how

Fitzgerald saw the decadent culture of the 20’s which he was exposed to once he gained wealth

and fame from his writing career. The 2013 film adaptation of the book by Baz Luhrman

however changes the plot and the way the characters act to make them seem more insane due to

their wealth rather than enabled. Fitzgerald shows carelessness due to wealth by how he writes

characters such as Jay Gatsby, and the Buchanans as well as how they express their emotions.

Analyzing The Great Gatsby through a marxist lens reveals how money and wealth can make

people act carelessly. Luhrmann's film adaptation contrasts this by how the characters are

portrayed as emotionally unstable due to being enabled by their wealth rather than carelessness.

Throughout The Great Gatsby many eccentric and wealthy characters are introduced, and

one of the common themes with these characters that Fitzgerald is trying to portray is their

carelessness. We can see an example of Fitzgerald's portrayal of the characters as carelessly

wealthy in the books when Gatsby explains why he bought the house across the lake, with Jordan

saying “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” Gatsby buying a

house just to be near Daisy, even though he's still scared to go up and talk with her face to face

demonstrates how wealth has enabled him to use needlessly complicated methods to be near

Daisy when he could just talk to her. Gatsby is almost shown as acting frivolous with his money,
spending it on needless parties, also in hopes to get him closer to Daisy without ever trying to

talk to her. However we can also see through Daisy's actions in the story that she as well was

careless, flipping between Jay and then back to Tom when she was too stressed out from the

situation, ruining Jay's life in the process. This is specifically highlighted at the end of the book

when Nick comments “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things

and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it

was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” This quote

also demonstrates Tom, and especially Daisy's carelessness in life, which they've been able to be

because of their vast wealth. Both of these quotes serve to represent how wealth can enable

people to make careless decisions in their pursuits which may lead to actual consequences later

on.

With the film however, we can see someone of the opposite approach to the portrayal of

the characters, rather than being shown as careless snobs, they are more represented as all

slightly insane or eccentric based off of the way they act. This is best seen in the film when Tom

Confronts Jay over his relationship with his wife Daisy. In the scene the characters are seen

yelling at each other and progressively getting more agitated due to Daisy saying she doesn't love

Tom but did once. Because of this, Gatsby begins to go into a panicked crazed state, which we

can see by the stutter in voice, his wide open eyes and through his continued insistence that

Daisy never loved Tom even after Daisy admitted that she did. It’s also seen earlier in the film

when his obsession with Daisy is revealed. The film portrays these characters, specifically

Gatsby as rash and somewhat insane characters, who get emotional very easily, which is made

worse due to their vast wealth which enables their actions. However in both the book and film

Nick is the anchor for the audience, as he is portrayed as a more stable and level headed
character who sees things objectively, this is likely due to the author Fitzgerald writing Nick as

himself, looking into the world of the rich.

Overall the movie and book are overall similar, with the only differences being in the way

the characters are portrayed. However this change in character portrayal changes how the reader

views them as well as how they sympathize with them. Both the book and film keep the main

idea that wealth makes people carelessly reckless which sticks with Fitzgerald's original ideas

about the wealth elites culture during the 1920s which is portrayed in the movie and book.

Skill N Foundational Proficient Advanced

Y

Thesis Establishes *previous and *previous and

a basic Indicates the Effectively & clearly
claim relationship conveys the
Mentions between texts relationship between
both texts Claim is a texts & and the
Specifically reasonable message or
mentions or interpretation interpretation that
alludes to a and moves can be determined
critical lens beyond Clearly developed
summary throughout essay
Developed
throughout
essay

Claims Makes a *Previous (and) *Previous (and)

statement Somewhat Considers the thesis
that requires considers the of the paper
evidence to thesis Effective use of
support Somewhat transition
developed words/phrases
through Clearly developed
paragraph through paragraph

Evidence Includes *previous and *previous and

evidence Includes multiple Includes a variety of
from both pieces of specific, meaningful,
texts (either evidence/ and well-chosen
 quotes or examples that evidence that relates
examples) clearly relate to to the thesis
Most the thesis,
evidence individual claims,
relates to and critical lens
lens Includes multiple
pieces of
evidence in each
body paragraph

Analysis Somewhat Explains how Explains

explains evidence well-selected points
how supports topic of comparison
evidence sentence of among evidence
supports individual and their connection
topic paragraphs to the thesis
sentence Explains how
and thesis evidence
supports the
thesis of the
essay
Some use of film
specific
vocabulary

MLA Some elements missing No errors in MLA format

or some errors in MLA
format

Conventio Shows Most quotes are All quotes are

ns evidence of correctly correctly integrated
basic integrated Shows evidence of
proofreadin Follows essay careful proofreading
g organization
Shows evidence
of proofreading

Fluency Simple use Demonstrates Strong use of of

of use of grade vocabulary, diction,
vocabulary level vocabulary, sentence structures
Simple diction, sentence
sentence structures
structures Accurate use of
text specific
vocabulary